]]>http://marine.copernicus.eu/cmems-service-evolution-projects/feed/0Interview of Geoff Sawyer, Secretary General of EARSChttp://marine.copernicus.eu/interview-of-geoff-sawyer-secretary-general-of-earsc/
http://marine.copernicus.eu/interview-of-geoff-sawyer-secretary-general-of-earsc/#respondSun, 11 Oct 2015 22:00:00 +0000http://marine.copernicus.eu/interview-of-geoff-sawyer-secretary-general-of-earsc/During the interview he granted, he expressed that among the 75+ EARSC members, a lot of companies...

]]> During the interview he granted, he expressed that among the 75+ EARSC members, a lot of companies are already using the Copernicus Marine Service and he was expecting their interest to grow as shown in a survey launched between 2012 and 2014 where the number of respondents who declared being interested in CMEMS as the basis for future business doubled.

For Geoff, CMEMS is for to help develop the economy, the industry and to position Europe in the world. 65% of service today is for public sector so the other opportunity to grow the other segments in commercial area, other industries, export, and potentially citizens is enormous.

To him, we are on a verge of an exciting new era of data explosion where we can see the potential for new markets so he believes that EARSC and Mercator Ocean and CMEMS can work together to design, to improve, to address those new markets, and to build a big benefit for Europe in economy growth and jobs.

Watch the interview of Geoff Sawyer, Secretary General of EARSC :

More about EARSC

EARSC is a non-profit-making organisation created in 1989 with the mission to foster the development of European Geo-Information Service Industry. Its main objective is to stimulate a sustainable market for geo-information services using EO data. EARSC has 76 members from more than 22 European countries and is a recognised association both in Europe and worldwide.

EARSC represents the European providers of geo-information services creating a network between industry, decision-makers and users. EARSC considers that the market is at a crucial stage of development as Earth observation becomes more frequently used by society and adds positive value to our daily lives. Nevertheless, there are many issues, opportunities and threats facing industrial actors. Supported by a small secretariat, EARSC informs and involves its members through its website and newsletters, through the provision of web-tools, as well as organizing events.

EARSC provides tools for its members to promote themselves and their services. As well as the EARSC web-site (www.earsc.org), EARSC runs a portal (www.earsc-portal.eu) which promotes links between EARSC members and other Communities such as the Oil & Gas industry, and a brokerage site (www.eopages.eu) for customers to find the services which they require and which companies can provide them with a solution.

]]>1. Dominique, as Head of Mercator Ocean’s Operations & Services Department, what is your mission in the CMEMS?

For the Copernicus Marine service (CMEMS), my team and I have two missions:

ensuring the production of global ocean products

defining and implementing the user service.

“User Uptake” falls rather under the latter mission.

2. What are the reasons for deploying a “User Uptake” programme in the CMEMS?

CMEMS is a unique service which already has more than 5200 subscribers around the world. This is a great achievement, even more so in that the demand for services covering other marine and maritime needs, continues to increase. The Copernicus Marine service does its utmost to improve its offer so that it will become an indispensable Ocean information service for users in all fields of application, no matter what their knowledge of oceanography.

The needs for further CMEMS services may be divided into two main categories:

-> Those which extend the current service and which are expressed by users for instance. This is done each day, by means of a proven process for continual improvement of the service in the short run and, for the medium and long-term perspective, by means of an extensive R & D programme, called “Service Evolution”.

-> Those which are expressed by people wanting to use the service, but that have not yet taken the plunge, either because our offer is not suitable for them or because it only partially meets their needs. We must imperatively meet these expectations in order to open CMEMS to new communities.

The user feedback for this latter category highlights needs for coastal services (the question is: what is the CMEMS offer and what are its limits for this field of application?), requests for support to comply with the Marine Strategy Framework Directive of the EU, requests for diversification and easy access to products, a need for more complete and detailed verification and validation of products, and the need for sustained compatibility between all of the current products in the catalogue and those to come.

The aim of the “User Uptake” programme is partly to secure the loyalty of current users and partly to enable new communities to adopt and use the Copernicus Marine service.

The programme will thus finance, via contracts, the development of tools or the production of information to meet the needs expressed.

3. How will it work in practice?

As each user has specific needs, vocabulary, practices and key variables for his/her field of application and in order to ensure suitable development for each field of application, the “User Uptake” programme will be divided into four categories of CMEMS benefits:

For each of these fields of application and for as many “User Uptake” developments as necessary, the formal procurement procedure for public contracts (thus guaranteed for candidates), will begin with a consultation based on technical requirements. The specifications for these technical requirements will enable candidates to provide innovative and easy-to-understand content for a broader, scientific & non-scientific audience with respect to technical, scientific or graphic aspects and decision-making support.

4. What about the selection process?

The candidates for contracts will be examined by a panel of experts appointed by Mercator Ocean, which will judge whether their offers complement and are suitable for the Copernicus Marine service and whether they are relevant to the needs of the target populations and the ways in which they may relate to other Copernicus services. Where necessary, the scientific quality of the proposed development may be analysed by the CMEMS Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee (STAC), made up of well-known scientists.

Each organisation selected, whether it be public or private, shall submit its offer according to the procedure specified in the call for tender and before the prescribed deadline. The amount of the procurement may vary by a factor of 10 according to the contents and duration of each contractual package (i.e. between €20,000 and €200,000), given that each year about €1 million will be allotted for this procurement.

5. Who will be able to respond to these “User Uptake” calls for tender?

All public or private organisations may bid for the proposed contracts, on their own behalf or as part of a consortium, so long as they comply with the specified conditions. We are expecting them to offer innovative services on the basis of the existing CMEMS service and complementary to it, in a specific field of application, in the form of a toolbox or information, or something else which remains to be invented. Whatever the case, their offer should be of benefit to intermediary users, who are the main target of the Copernicus Marine service, and also to certain end users (such as policy-makers or European or national agencies).

Another important point should be noted: our aim is to open these consultations to as many organisations as possible in order to receive new and different ideas and relevant proposals for our current and future users. Obviously the consultations will be conducted with a level playing field for all candidates in a completely transparent way.

6. Who will be hosting the CMEMS developments proposed by the tenderers?

The developments produced by third parties in the framework of these “User Uptake” contracts will be the property of the European Union. They will be available via the CMEMS portal which will publish the names of the third-party developer of tools or producer of information.

7. When will the Call for Tenders begin?

The first procurement consultations will be published in the autumn of 2015 and will be followed by others in a logical sequence over the next five years.

Each call for tender will be preceded by a consultation. For instance, the workshop on 7, 8 September in Brussels will enable us to clarify and confirm priority topics currently being considered for the marine and coastal environment category, with respect to the interface with national coastal services and in accordance with the Marine Strategy Framework Directive of the EU.

]]>http://marine.copernicus.eu/more-about-the-cmems-user-uptake-programme/feed/0Take part in the European Commission / Copernicus Data and Information User Surveyhttp://marine.copernicus.eu/take-part-in-the-european-commission-copernicus-data-and-information-user-survey/
http://marine.copernicus.eu/take-part-in-the-european-commission-copernicus-data-and-information-user-survey/#respondTue, 14 Jul 2015 22:00:00 +0000http://marine.copernicus.eu/take-part-in-the-european-commission-copernicus-data-and-information-user-survey/Mercator Ocean supports this initiative and warmly encourage users to contribute to the surveys to help the...

Please mention if you are a Copernicus Marine Service user in the questionnaires. They are hosted on a European Commission server and can be filled in directly on the web. No paper versions are needed. Your personal data are protected under Regulation 45/2001 regulating the processing of personal data by the EU Institutions. The deadline to fill in the surveys is set to the 8th of August 2015. The statistical results of the surveys will be made available at the end of the third quarter 2015 in a document that will be shared.

]]> Under the Delegation Agreement signed on November 11th, 2014 , Mercator Ocean undertakes to successfully implement and develop the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS).

The CMEMS is a user-driven core service expected to contribute to European innovation and competitiveness. It helps build the Blue Economy, providing generic, reliable, timely and up-to-date information related to the Global Ocean and the European Seas that will be:

• open and freely available through a single access point (a web portal); • a state-of-the-art and constantly evolving source of information, through a permanent dialogue with the scientific and technical community involved in operational oceanography; • a European Service, with no overlap or duplications with the scope and responsibilities of the institutional marine services of Member States.

The Horizon2020 funded project “MyOcean follow-On let the floor to the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) without any service disruption.

]]>http://marine.copernicus.eu/welcome-to-your-copernicus-marine-service/feed/0All Good things come in threeshttp://marine.copernicus.eu/all-good-things-come-in-threes/
http://marine.copernicus.eu/all-good-things-come-in-threes/#respondMon, 29 Sep 2014 22:00:00 +0000http://marine.copernicus.eu/all-good-things-come-in-threes/After the MyOcean project( 2009-2012) , the second Milestone “MyOcean2” ( 2012-2014) came to an end on...

]]> After the MyOcean project( 2009-2012) , the second Milestone “MyOcean2” ( 2012-2014) came to an end on September 30th and let the floor to MyOcean follow-On, from October 1st 2014 until March31st 2015.

The three projects have been designed to prepare and to lead the demonstration phases of the future Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service.

MyOcean2 was intended to consolidate the Euroean-wide architecture built from 2009 to 2012 and to make the service evolved continuously to better address user needs. This is precisely what it did.

As a result, 4255 users did subscribe to the MyOcean2 services ( 1012 at the end f MyOcean in march 2012).

User requirements and Scientifc excellence remain the two MyOcean Follow-On pillars and the R&D activities will be sustained to keep pace with the users’ expectations.

MyOcean Follow-on has been designed in full continuity with MyOcean2 in terms of service, tasks, partners (*) and budget rate. It is also intended to bridge between the pre-operational service and the Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (to be in place in April 2015).

(*)MyOcean Follow-On is funded by HORIZON 2020 (EU Research and Innovation programme 2014-2020) whose eligibility criteria have been recently modified. Legal persons established in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea or the city of Sevastopol, are not eligible to participate in any capacity in MyOcean Follow-on. This impacts the MyOcean Follow-on Work Package organisation and service in the Black Sea. All users concerned will be duly supported and guided by the Service Work Package.

]]> The Arctic marine environment experiences change at an unprecedented pace which is very likely caused by greenhouse gas induced global warming.The EU FP7 funded ICE-ARC project aims to understand and quantify the multiple stresses involved in the change with a particular focus on the rapid retreat and collapse of the Arctic sea ice cover and to assess the climatic (ice, ocean, atmosphere and ecosystem), economic, and social impacts of these stresses on regional and global scales.

Leif Toudal Pedersen, senior researcher at the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI) and member of the ICE ARC project steering committee hre below explains the ICE-ARC project challenges and the potential contribution for MyOcean:

This is the first time that a leading global impact model has been coupled with a physical climate model to directly assess the economic impact of observed and projected climate change events. It is being applied to the oceanic region of greatest current concern to the global community because of the speed of visible change there.

The focus of the workshop ( 15-16 sept 2014, Toulouse) was put on research and development related to numerical sea ice analysis and prediction:

]]>http://marine.copernicus.eu/tackling-key-challenges-in-the-arctic/feed/0MyOcean2 and the INSPIRE directive ? Current state of play.http://marine.copernicus.eu/myocean2-and-the-inspire-directive-current-state-of-play/
http://marine.copernicus.eu/myocean2-and-the-inspire-directive-current-state-of-play/#respondThu, 31 Jul 2014 22:00:00 +0000http://marine.copernicus.eu/myocean2-and-the-inspire-directive-current-state-of-play/Copernicus services and projects provide large geospatial datasets and information .They have consequently to be INSPIRE compliant....

]]> Copernicus services and projects provide large geospatial datasets and information .They have consequently to be INSPIRE compliant. This includes MyOcean2 services preparing the future Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service.

To ensure that the spatial data infrastructures of the Member States are compatible and usable in a Community and transboundary context, the INSPIRE Directive requires that common Implementing Rules (IR) are adopted in a numberof specific areas. These IRs are adopted as Commission Decisions or Regulations, and are binding in their entirety.

A “Sea Region” (SR) is a 2D geometry of an area or line with common (physical or chemical) characteristics that is covered by an ocean, sea or similar salt water body. The model allows the concept of named seas, as well subdivisions and aggregation of seas according to physical or chemical properties. The Sea Regions theme provides mechanisms to describe both the sea bed and sea surface as well as inter-tidal areas and the shoreline.

An “Ocean Geographical Feature” (OF) represents the (physical or chemical) properties of a Sea Region. This type of information is essentially a coverage describing the ocean and could be presented as a set of point data, gridded data, but also as vertical profiles through ocean depths and trajectories along the ocean surface. The Ocean Geographical Features theme employs the ISO 19156 Observations and Measurements standard for consistent encoding of measured, modeled or simulated data.

2. What are INSPIRE guiding principles ?

Infrastructures for spatial information in the Member States should be designed to ensure:

that spatial data are stored, made available and maintained at the most appropriate level;

that it is possible to combine spatial data and services from different sources across the Community in aconsistent way and share them between several users and applications;

that it is possible for spatial data collected at one level of public authority to be shared between all the different levels of public authorities;

that spatial data and services are made available under conditions that do not restrict their extensive use;

that it is easy to discover available spatial data, to evaluate their fitness for purpose and to know the conditions applicable to their use.

3. Common Implementing Rules shall be adopted for each main infrastructure components. What are the specific area concerned ?

MyOcean2 is delivering a state-of-the-art range of ocean data (Observations from Satellites and InSitu and Model simulations). The entire MyOcean2 catalogue is therefore to be in compliance with the INSPIRE Directive.

MyOcean2 is strongly committed to achieve full INSPIRE compliance and strives toward achieving this goal. Any user can yet discover (search), view ( without registering) and download data from the MyOcean Webportal (see dedicated tutorials in the training websection) . The View service requirements is though still in progress ( table dated June 2014).

5. Along with metadata and services requirements, what does INSPIRE directive also require ?

The directive requires a high level of Service Quality. It is measured by 3 parameters :

Performance (download speed, response time)

Capacity (number of downloads possible at the same time)

Availability

The quality of Service needs to be measured for the discovery (catalogue), the downloading (subsetter and DGF/DirectGetFile) and the viewing (WMS) interfaces.

MyOcean2 dedicated IS teams regularily conduct tests on the viewing and downloading interfaces which are the most demanding interfaces in term of Quality of Service.

6. How Quality of VIEW Services should be measured according to INSPIRE recommendations?

7. How Quality of DOWNLOAD Services should be measured according to INSPIRE recommendations ?

Whether it be for “View” or “Downloading” services, MyOcean2 dedicated IS teams regularily conduct tests on the viewing and downloading interfaces which are the most demanding interfaces in term of Quality of Service

]]>http://marine.copernicus.eu/myocean2-and-the-inspire-directive-current-state-of-play/feed/0Building together the MyOcean Communityhttp://marine.copernicus.eu/building-together-the-myocean-community/
http://marine.copernicus.eu/building-together-the-myocean-community/#respondThu, 03 Jul 2014 22:00:00 +0000http://marine.copernicus.eu/building-together-the-myocean-community/A User Workshop is a major event for MyOcean as it is a unique opportunity to bring...

]]> A User Workshop is a major event for MyOcean as it is a unique opportunity to bring together and trigger a constructive dialogue among MyOcean community representatives : users and future users, National and European agencies, Private companies and Universities, Service providers, National and European stakeholders…

A hundred of participants from 12 European countries joined and contributed to the UW2014 (Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and UK). Be during plenary or splinter sessions, attendees were able to witness the large diversity of MyOcean users’ profile and requirements.

The key-objectives of the UW2014 were :

To listen to users needs and requirements and to share best practices within the MyOcean community

To provide answers and latest statements about MyOcean in terms of Science, Services and above all , about Service Sustainability.

This UW had something special this year, as the MyOcean projects stream is coming soon to an end ( MyOcean2 will end in September 2014 and MyOcean Follow-on will take over until March 2015) having prepared the next Copernicus Marine Monitoring Service over 6 years (2009-2015).

The plenary session DAY 1 drawed attention to the 2 MyOcean’s key drivers : Science and User Requirements and updated the audience about the latest project statements. This year, splinter sessions were dedicated to 2 thematics: Maritime Safety and Coastal and Marine Environment. The splinter sessions DAY 1 were chaired by RODNEY FORSTER (Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science-UK), VIRGINIE HART ( UNEP – MAP), GEORGE ZODIATIS ( Oeanography Center – University of Cyprus) and ANNE-MARIE HAYES (Earth Observation Services – EMSA). These sessions alterning different use cases enabled users to open dialogue with MyOcean officers around their requirements.

From left to right : Anne-Marie Hays(EMSA), George Zodiatis (OC-UCY), Virginie HART ( UNEP-MAP) and Rodney FORSTER ( CEFAS), the 4 chairs of the splinter sessions.

The Sessions outcomes were presented by the chairs during the Plenary Session DAY 2 so as a comprehensive overview of Erik BUCH ( EuroGOOS Chair) about the complementary roles of the Marine Core Service and the Downstream Services.

The UW2014 ended with a special focus on Portugal, a major Maritime Nation, whose maritime area consists of almost 20 times the size of the territory and this was the place were about 50 Portuguese Users presented their specific needs and requirements, driven by Mario CAETANO ( FCT), Pedro VITERBO (IPMA) and Ramiro NEVES (IST).

From left to right : Dominique OBATON (MyOcean2 Head of Services), Pedro VITERBO(IPMA), Ramiro NEVES(IST) and Joël DORANDEU ( MyOcean2 project manager).

]]>http://marine.copernicus.eu/building-together-the-myocean-community/feed/0Eyewitnessing Plastic Pollution in Oceanshttp://marine.copernicus.eu/eyewitnessing-plastic-pollution-in-oceans/
http://marine.copernicus.eu/eyewitnessing-plastic-pollution-in-oceans/#respondSun, 04 May 2014 22:00:00 +0000http://marine.copernicus.eu/eyewitnessing-plastic-pollution-in-oceans/HEADING FOR THE SARGASSO SEA TO EXPLORE THE MASS OF PLASTIC WASTE WHIRLED TOGETHER BY MARINE CURRENTS...

]]>HEADING FOR THE SARGASSO SEA TO EXPLORE THE MASS OF PLASTIC WASTE WHIRLED TOGETHER BY MARINE CURRENTS IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC

5 May 2014 -‐ Port du Marin -‐ Fort de France – Martinique

Two months after the HOPE conference in Brussels and its wake up call for sustainable oceans, the 7th continent expedition echoes the call and leaves today from Port du Marin at Fort de France.

It will head due north towards the Sargasso Sea to reach the centre of the North Atlantic gyre located using MyOcean’s reanalysis model of marine currents.

The Sargasso Sea, discovered by Christopher Columbus, owes its name to the significant concentration of “Sargassum” seaweed there, which is due to the gyre phenomenon, in other words a circular marine current, in this part of the North Atlantic. This concentration of algae is unfortunately increasingly accompanied by plastic waste produced by humans and washed out to sea in rivers and streams.

Patrick Deixonne, a member of the French Explorers Society, will be directing operations from the laboratory ship “Guyavoile” a 60 feet catamaran (vessel’s length: 18m; vessel breadth: 9 m ; seals: 200m2 + gennaker 160m2; 10 knots speed in average with a 1000 nautic miles autonomy).

The expedition goal is to locate and analyse the large masses of plastic waste which concentrate in the North Atlantic Ocean and to raise public awareness of the effects of human behaviour on nature.

MyOcean contributes to the mission in several ways :

– Thanks to a drift computation based on MyOcean Global reanalysis over 10 years, MyOcean experts help the expedition optimize and finetune the itinerary in order to find the best pollution convergence zones in the North Atlantic.

The zone will be reached about one week after the departure. The ship will then be spending a week within the gyre in order to characterise it as best as possible and understand the mechanism.

The expedition should return around 25 May, with a considerable volume of data for laboratory analysis. The other main scientific partners of the expedition are CNES (The French Space Agency), ESA (The European Space Agency) and the CNRS (French National scientific research Centre).

In 2013, the 7th continent expedition, led by Patrick Deixonne, explored the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and MyOcean took also part of this remarkable and collective endeavour ( web article, May17 2013)

I joined the UK Met Office in 2001, and over the past decade have worked on software development, database development, and the creation of tools and methods to assist in the validation of atmospheric NWP models. Prior to this I completed a PhD in magneto-hydrodynamics, investigating the generation and saturation of magnetic fields in electrically conducting fluid flows. I have recently moved into ocean forecasting, and as part of my new role I have taken on responsibility for delivering the Product Quality work package for MyOcean2 (Discover the team figure 5).

What are the role and the objectives of this team dedicated to Product Quality?

The goal of the Product Quality work package is to complete and improve the product information which MyOcean gives to its users. It does this by working with production centres to increase the consistency between the validation performed on the wide range of MyOcean products, and by developing new metrics for understanding the scientific quality of the products. The team has also developed a system to routinely publish validation statistics on the accuracy of the operational MyOcean products (figure 1) , which we hope will strengthen users confidence in our products.

What are users expecting precisely?

MyOcean users have asked for more information on the quality of our products. They have also requested that the quality information should be presented in a more consistent, concise and easily understood manner.

Product Quality is a key-user requirements, how have you translated these needs into practical and valuable deliverables for them?

The first step we took was to publish a set of Quality Information Documents (QuIDs) which present the results of the validation performed on each product by the MyOcean production centres. These QuIDs are available online in the catalogue associated with each product, under the “documentation” tab. These documents are updated each time the product undergoes a change which affects the quality.

This made a great wealth of information available for users, but did not provide a quick and simple overview of the quality of each product. We therefore developed a standard for providing accuracy metrics in a concise and consistent manner across a wide range of products.

These are known as “estimated accuracy numbers” and give an “at-a-glance” indication of the accuracy of each product. These numbers are available in a standardised format as part of the executive summary of each QuID.

Can you tell us more about ongoing “validation statistics”? What will be the added-value for MyOcean users from April 15th 2014?

Most recently, we have developped a complete historical validation statistics system for the near-real-time MyOcean products accessible from the MyOcean web portal . These statistics are computed as part of the operational systems within each production centre and are monitored by scientists to check the performance of the systems (cf figure 2,3 and 4). This new web section dedicated to Validation allows users to see these statistics, along with notes which explain how the statistics are calculated and explain any unusual behaviour in the values. This will continue to be developed and improved and we encourage users to give us any feedback they have on the usefulness of the information provided.

Jan, what are the next steps in the months to come?

We will continue to work on this new validation web section to make it even more user-friendly and reliable for users. We also aim to display additional information, such as regional maps of the areas covered by each of the products, as well as maps of how the observations used to generate the statistics are distributed within the regions.

Research is also underway as part of the work package to develop more specialist validation metrics, which will assist in the scientific understanding of the performance and accuracy of some of the products, and these will become another option on the MyOcean web portal following successful peer review.

The recently released MyOcean Collaborative forum allow users to feed back any comments or questions on the content of the web portal, and to suggest other improvements they would like to see implemented ( link to the forum/Validation domain). It is hoped that this interaction with users will allow the validation process to continue to evolve over the lifecycle of the project to meet the needs of the MyOcean community .

]]>http://marine.copernicus.eu/validation-statistics-a-major-breakthrough-in-myocean-quality-management/feed/0SENTINEL 1 LAUNCH ON APRIL 3rd , A STEP FORWARD TO SAFER NAVIGATIONhttp://marine.copernicus.eu/sentinel-1-launch-on-april-3rd-a-step-forward-to-safer-navigation/
http://marine.copernicus.eu/sentinel-1-launch-on-april-3rd-a-step-forward-to-safer-navigation/#respondTue, 01 Apr 2014 22:00:00 +0000http://marine.copernicus.eu/sentinel-1-launch-on-april-3rd-a-step-forward-to-safer-navigation/WHAT IS SENTINEL 1 ? ESA, the European Space Agency, is developing a new family of...

ESA, the European Space Agency, is developing a new family of missions called Sentinels specifically for the operational needs of the Copernicus programme. Each Sentinel mission is based on a constellation of two satellites to fulfil revisit and coverage requirements, providing robust datasets for Copernicus Services.

Sentinel-1 is a two satellite constellation with the prime objectives of Land and Ocean monitoring. The goal of the mission is to provide C-Band SAR data continuity following the retirement of ERS-2 and the end of the Envisat mission.

WHICH BENEFITS FOR OCEAN MONITORING ?

Sea ice is a dynamic phenomenon: new ice may form in large areas from one day to the next and ice may drift more than 50 km in a day, so it is important to have regular observations in order to provide a reliable and up to date ice service for safe navigation.

Satellite data feed the MyOcean pre-operational services and will do so for the future Copernicus Marine Service (2015). The Sentinel-1 satellite, the first of Copernicus Satellite series of ESA will provide substantial benefits for the Marine services.

“The radar images (as provided by Sentinel-1) are the primary source of information for navigational support as well as for detecting ice drift and deformation. They are used for sea ice monitoring for producing ice drift products and icecharts in both the northern and the southern hemispheres” says Leif Toudal Pedersen from Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut (DMI), member of the MyOcean consortium.

Through MyOcean and its Ocean and Sea Ice Service (which Lars-Anders Breivik from Met Norway is the leader), timely and reliable forecasts of ice conditions are produced and strongly depend on new data about where the ice is and how it has been moving.

WHICH IMPROVEMENTS FOR MyOcean SEA ICE MONITORING ?

The Sentinel-1 radar images have a resolution of 20 by 40 meters or better. Compared to previous satellite data, this allows to see smaller features in the ice pack and to recognize these features from day to day and thereby measure the ice drift and deformation.

Due to limitations in the power consumption on the satellite (radar needs power to transmit) one Sentinel-1 satellite alone will not provide complete daily coverage. This is why the Sentinel-1 mission will be based on two radar satellites (the first one being launched on 3rd April 2014) to be operational simultaneously. With two satellites in orbit, we can expect a near complete daily coverage for higher latitude areas and even the possibility of coverage several times.

At the present time we only have a limited amount of data which allows to produce the coverage shown on the below figure of Greenland only once or twice a week. With Sentinel-1 it will be possible to get almost daily coverage (with two Sentinel-1 satellites, daily or better coverage will be achieved), and to get much wider coverage (larger part of the Arctic Ocean and also much larger parts of the ice cover in the Southern Ocean).

• Substantially wider coverage of the ice drift product and new ice deformation products. The geographical coverage with S1 will expand both in the Arctic and in particular in the Antarctic. • Increased temporal frequency of some of the ice chart products • Improved quality of the ice chart products due to the improved frequency of coverage and the improved resolution. • With the advent of a truly operational mission new automatically classified ice products should be developed.

]]> MyOcean services go through regular transition and improvement phases occurring during major annual “releases” (new products, new services, product improvements, etc.) as a response to user needs. This is why the “MyOcean Service Transition” has become a fully-fledged MyOcean service to benefit users.

Anne Delamarche, MyOcean Service Manager is in charge of this task. She ensures that MyOcean service releases are well scheduled, well-coordinated and at the end of the day respond to users’ needs.How can this be verified? Through an indispensable satisfaction survey. Following the service release in November, she launched a survey with the Support of the Service Desk that ran from mid-December 2013 until mid-January 2014.She reports for us some of the findings of this latest satisfaction survey among MyOcean service users.

Anne, can you present your tasks and the links with the rest of the service team?AD: As a Service Manager reporting to the MyOcean Head of Services, I supervise MyOcean service operations, and during Service Transitions, my task is to schedule and coordinate all transition activities, from the decision about a new release until the end of the dual distribution of old and new products. These activities include liaising with the Technical Managers, the Product Manager, network production teams, and of course the Service Desk.

Can you tell us more about the latest user questionnaire?AD: This questionnaire is of major importance as it enables us to adjust and improve the level of service in line with expectations: product quality, access to products, relevant level of information and so on. The survey was sent in December to all 3088 users registered at that time. 12 % of users answered (361), which is a pretty good response rate.

Can you share with us the profile of the respondents and some of your major findings?AD: 77% of respondents access the web portal from 1 to 3 times a month, mostly the MyOcean interactive catalogue (60%) but also dedicated “User Corner” sections like the News Flash (9%) and the Product Improvements web section (16%). We are pleased to see that the interactive catalogue on the web portal gets many visits and attach great value to the “User Corner” web sections (News Flash & Product Improvements), because they indicate the “real time” status of the current service. These sections deserve to be better known by users.

Also, 70% of respondents assessed the support provided by the MyOcean Service Desk as “helpful to very helpful”. To illustrate this, 89% of them consider the information about outages (News Flash on the web portal) as helpful to very helpful. The satisfaction rate was 84% as far as E-mailed release information is concerned.These results are very encouraging for our service provision. They reflect our users’ satisfaction with the day-to-day service, and we aim to continue to improve it.

As you can see in the graphs (see opposite), the scientific quality and availability of MyOcean products were assessed as good or very good by 89% and 88% of respondents respectively.

All these rates are meaningful for a service driven by scientific excellence and user requirements. Since 2009, the MyOcean and MyOcean2 teams dedicated to Service have been striving to enhance the service quality to users and this survey shows we are on the right track.

What is the next step?AD: This is actually very encouraging feedback and we hope to do even better for the next MyOcean service releases that are scheduled to occur in April and June this year. This will be very challenging given the planned developments (such as the new catalogue display with advanced search, updated products, new products or new data assimilated).

]]>November 7th 2013, the terrible Typhoon HAIYAN hits the Philippines’ populationwith unprecendented power : a world record as the strongest tropical cyclone to hit land in world history.

The intensity of a tropical cyclone depends on the amount of heat available in the ocean. This is the main reason a cyclone weakens when passing over land. Cyclones are called typhoons in the north-west Pacific.

MyOcean experts are able to analyse the oceanic background of this outstanding cyclonic event with the MyOcean Global product at 1/12th degree resolution called “Global Ocean Physics Analysis and Forecast” which is daily updated.

An analysis of the HEAT CONTENT of the body of water that interacts with the atmosphere (known as the Tropical Cyclone Heat Potential, TCHP) is a recognised indicator used by forecasters of ocean weather to calculate changes in the intensity of tropical cyclones. The ocean layer concerned lies between the surface, where water temperature can reach 28 to 30°C, and the depth of the D26 isotherm, where the water is at 26°C.

The trajectory of Typhoon HAIYAN plotted on this map of the depth of the 26°C isotherm shows that it changed from Category 3 to Category 4 (according to the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, which has five categories) as it crossed the area where the depth of the 26°C isotherm reached a maximum of 135 to 150m (around 6N 148E), whereas D26 had previously been at about 100m. This region therefore had much greater heat in reserve. Typhoon HAIYAN drew from the available energy in this part of the ocean and immediately moved into Category 5.

This explanation is confirmed in terms of heat content.

If the typhoon’s trajectory is overlaid on a map of the ocean’s heat content, it can be seen that it moved slightly north, from 9N to 11N between 132E and 125E, thus passing over an area of maximum energy (in dark red on the map) during the day of 7 November, before making landfall on the Philippine coast.

The pressure then dropped to 895hPa and the wind strengthened, reaching a maximum of 145mph (235 km/h) (for at least 10 minutes) at 12 noon local time, with one-minute sustained wind-speed reaching 195mph (315 km/h) on 7 November at 18:00 local time. The typhoon remained in Category 5 until 03:00 local time on 8 November.

HAIYAN then weakened as it crossed the South China Sea, whose waters are much cooler, and reached the coast of Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin on 11 November, categorised as a Severe Tropical Storm.

]]> The 2-days MyOcean training session jointly organised by MHI NASU (Marine Hydrophysical Institute of National Academy of Science of Ukraine) and OC-UCY (Oceanography Center, University of Cyprus), was open to current or potential users of MyOcean services having interests in the Med and the Black Seas (service providers or end users, scientific or business purposes).

25 trainees from 6 countries (Bulgaria, Georgia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Ukraine) were introduced to state-of-the-art methods and tools of operational oceanography and learned how to access, download and view the MyOcean data, across inter-related disciplines :maritime transport, security, safety and pollution combat, marine environmental monitoring and assessments, Ecosystem modelling. The MyOcean Service Desk Manager was also present to introduce the Service Desk user-driven mission to answer & manage any user request.

Trainees were issued from several types of organizations :

Plenary sessions provided to the participants with an overview of coastal and open sea observatories in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea within the scope of the operational oceanography in general and MyOcean in particular, at present and in the future. A few talks to illustrate :

Basic concepts in Operational Oceanography: from data to knowledge with a focus on the coastal seas. International cooperation and governance in Operational Oceanography (Gennady Korotaev, MHI-NASU)

The MyOcean added-value in delivering the Marine Core Service to Downstream services.(Gennady Korotaev, MHI-NASU)

The intensive programme on operational oceanography also included practical sessions on all aspects relating to real-time data acquisition and to the continuous and sustainable delivery of high quality environmental data and information products related to the marine environment of the Mediterranean and the Black seas. Experts exchanged about data acquisition technology, coastal observatories, data management, numerical modelling techniques, and the delivery of downstream services. The participants were also able to work hands on using software tools and applications including a few exercises. To illustrate:

How to write and use a script( IPython) to download a product every day(Hari Radhakrishnan, OC-UCY ).

Downloading and use of data from the MyOcean online service. NetCDF format.

Visualisation and analysis techniques of time series data.

The questionnaire distributed to trainees at the end of the session has confirmed the high satisfaction level of the participants for the session’s content and organisation, highlighting the efficiency of the practical sessions and exercises.

The MyOcean training session also led to mutually beneficial exchanges (share of experiences and best practices) between the participants who will remain in contact after the training in favour of collaborative joint efforts and contributions to the future of operational oceanography.

Last but not least, the MyOcean team has been honored by the proposal of the pro-rector of Odessa State Environmental University, Dr. Tuchkovenko, to hold similar training for his students.

MyOcean2 training activities will be soon subject to a dedicated websection on the MyOcean website ( planning, agenda, tutorials, …).

]]> Operational oceanography in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea is the focus of this training.

It will deal with technical and theoretical aspects related to access of the MyOcean products, in particular to met-ocean observations, operational monitoring platforms, numerical modelling and forecasting, data quality control and management, data assimilation and assessments, data archiving and dissemination.

This training session is open to current or potential future users of MyOcean service having interests in the Med and the Black Seas (service providers or end users, scientific or business purposes).

]]> The 2nd MyOcean User Workshop took place on 9-10 April 2013 in Copenhagen, about one year after the beginning of the MyOcean2 project, and three years after the availability of the first MyOcean service release. It was organised in close cooperation with EEA, in particular to analyse and discuss the MyOcean contribution to the marine environment monitoring activities. MyOcean User Workshop was followed at the same venue by the “Monitoring Matters workshop“, organized by the EEA, which marked an important phase in the GMES In-Situ Coordination (GISC).

The main objectives of this User Workshop were:

To present the current status of the MyOcean products and services;

To address the issue of continuity of the MyOcean service beyond MyOcean2 (end by fall 2014);

To discuss the response of MyOcean to expectations related to the marine environment monitoring, especially in the context of the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive;

To discuss the possible improvements and evolutions of the MyOcean products and service, as well as the sharing of best practises within its user communities.

1. A first plenary session, including a keynote presentation about Environmental data for the Maritime Economy by Professor J. McGlade (EEA Executive Director), and presentations about the Marine Strategy Framework Directive, the MyOcean Service, the MyOcean User Uptake, the MyOcean Service Improvement, the Product Quality Assessment in MyOcean, the R&D in MyOcean, as well as the GMES PURE approach for long term requirements about space observations;

2. Splinter sessions (half-day) dedicated to (i) Coastal and Downstream Services, (ii) Time Series and Indicators and (iii) MyOcean Biogeochemical Products. Each splinter included presentations of user cases and discussions about the relevance of MyOcean products and their possible improvements, the quality of these products, the information on and access to these products, and the sharing of best practices within the MyOcean user community. Specific emphasis was made on use of MyOcean products for the monitoring of the marine environment

3. A second plenary session, including the reports of the previous splinter sessions, presentations linked to Copernicus Marine Service Sustainability (Marine Knowledge 2020, Satellite Data Provision, In-Situ Data Provision, the ECOMF approach as well as the ECOMF Strategic Partnership and a round table discussion. This round table gathered representatives of European stakeholders of the Copernicus Marine Service, including the private sector, and addressed two main issues: (i) the scope of the Copernicus Marine Service and (ii) the benefits of a sustainable Copernicus Marine Service for the national institutions and the private sector.

The MyOcean UW2013 was also the right moment for initiating the first TRAINING session organised on April 8th PM in EEA’s premises. This was a good opportunity to present to MyOcean users and potential users the next changes and improvements of the the latest MyOcean service release to be implemented on April, 23rd onwards.

A specific websection on MyOcean training activities will be soon opened.

These continuous and reliable data are used by European decision makers for sustaining the European policy for Blue economic growth and corresponding policies (1) , by international conventions acting for protecting regional seas (2) and also by Member State agencies and institutes devoted to fighting pollution, protecting the coastal environment, assessing water quality, ensuring maritime safety and doing research on the climate.

These National bodies, which are members of EuroGOOS regional alliances (confer to “Focus On” January 2012), have national mandates; they contribute to scientific research and also the development of innovative marine applications. They themselves provide operational oceanography services based on MyOcean products for national and regional interests. There are innumerable points of convergence between the future GMES Marine Service and the National Agencies.

Consequently, the Declaration of Nicosia worked out on the 10th of October lays the foundations for an ECOMF Strategic Partnership between the European GMES Marine service providers (currently embodied in MyOcean), EuroGOOS (3) and Member State institutions. It will enrich current cooperation by:

Enabling economies of scale and avoiding duplication between the European and national levels;

Providing support for evolution of the GMES Marine Service and national public service products.

Reinforcing bilateral/multilateral cooperation

(1) The EU Integrated Maritime Policy and its Marine Strategy, the Common Fishery Policy, the European Research policy(2) OSPAR Convention, the HELCOM (Helsinki Commission), the Barcelona Convention, REMPEC, UNEP/MAP (Mediterranean Action Plan of the United Nations Environment Programme), Arctic Council and Black Sea Commission(3): EuroGOOS, the European Association of National governmental agencies and research organisations committed to European-scale operational oceanography.

]]>Joël Dorandeu, MyOcean project manager and Dominique Obaton, in charge of MyOcean service provision provide us with an update of the situation.

Dear Joël, can you summarize how far Satellites are important for MyOcean products & services?

Satellite missions are crucial for the ocean observation, monitoring and forecasting. Associated to in-situ measurements, they provide global and continuous coverage by essential observations of the ocean. Satellite observation data have played a key role in the development of operational oceanography in the last two decades. They are still essential: continuity and performance of space data directly impacts the quality of the MyOcean GMES Marine Service.

Various types of satellite data are used as inputs for generating the MyOcean user products: Synthesis Aperture Radars, scatterometers, radiometers, altimeters are different sensors on board satellites giving access to measurement of sea ice parameters, ocean surface characteristics, winds, sea surface temperature, sea surface topography and ocean colour. These variables are extremely important measurements operationally ingested in near real time by MyOcean processing chains to deliver the Service.

What is the current situation in particular vis a vis ENVISAT?

The most important event occurred on April, 8th when data from the ESA EnviSat satellite became unavailable, after ten years in orbit. Despite ESA teams’ efforts, the contact with the satellite was lost. ESA declared the end of the EnviSat mission early May 1012 (http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEM1SXSWT1H_index_0.html). Even if the Envisat mission has been a great success and of longer duration than expected, its loss significantly impacts the MyOcean Service because of the number of sensors onboard providing sea ice, sea surface temperature, sea surface topography and ocean color measurements.

However, even degraded, the MyOcean service can remain resilient in such event provided other various sources of input data are still available. The Envisat loss unfortunately occurred at the same time as a relatively long unavailability of Jason-1 altimeter data which are precise reference data. Jason-1 (CNES-NASA) has been moved to a sub-optimal orbit (as far as operational oceanography is concerned), until the end of the mission. Consequently operational oceanography is facing a critical situation with a high risk of lack of important space data, until new missions are launched and provide new sources of ocean observations input.

Do replacement solutions exist? Can mitigation actions be taken?

The MyOcean GMES Marine Service is in relation with ESA – responsible for the provision of Space data to the GMES Services – and other agencies like EUMETSAT and CNES to find alternative solutions and compensate as much as possible the Envisat loss. This could be partially done through non-European satellite missions like the HY-2A oceanography mission (Chinese mission with French cooperation), the RADARSAT-2 (Canadian mission) or the NPP US mission. This might take some time however so as significant additional efforts to include these new data into the MyOcean Service.

The GMES bureau and the European space agencies are currently analyzing these solutions. As a matter of fact, the MyOcean system has been built so it can be adapted to different input data and therefore ensure the continuity of the Service provision. Not the least of its strength.

Dear Dominique, how far MyOcean products and services are impacted?

12 products (over 239) entirely based on Envisat data are not updated anymore and stay as such in the MyOcean catalogue (latest update: April 8th 2012) . This impacted about 3% of MyOcean users.

The major impact however remains a loss of quality for 130 MyOcean products, essentially Observation data. Some Analysis and Forecast data from ocean models using observation data for assimilation or validation are also impacted albeit on a smaller scale.

All MyOcean users have been duly advised about this event and the impact on their MyOcean products uptake. The MyOcean website also regularly provides them with up-to-date information ( cf the “NEWS FLASH” web section dated May 11th and April 10th ). These notifications were efficiently ensured by the MyOcean Service Desk , the MyOcean users ’support team.

This is actually a critical and worrying situation for the MyOcean’s teams and service always striving for excellence in quality terms. Yet there is no service interruption. Most products are still produced and remain fully relevant for the MyOcean users as long as other sources of observations- either space data or in-situ data are available.

]]>http://marine.copernicus.eu/update-on-satellite-data-supply-to-myocean2/feed/0MyOcean2 GOT OFF TO A GOOD START !http://marine.copernicus.eu/myocean2-got-off-to-a-good-start/
http://marine.copernicus.eu/myocean2-got-off-to-a-good-start/#respondWed, 28 Mar 2012 22:00:00 +0000http://marine.copernicus.eu/myocean2-got-off-to-a-good-start/The aim of the MyOcean project, jointly funded by the European Commission and the Member States is...

]]>The aim of the MyOcean project, jointly funded by the European Commission and the Member States is to pool the resources of the various European ocean forecasting centres in order to create a GMES European Ocean Monitoring service by 2014.

From the Marine Core Service Workshop to a GMES Marine Service : almost 10 years of engagements and intensive work. MyOcean2 is the ultimate step before ECOMF (European Centre for Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting)

On April 1st, 2012 MyOcean2 has taken over for the final stage of transition to this long-term operational service. A dedicated event was organised in Brussels from March 27th to 29th for the MyOcean Closure and MyOcean2 Kick-Off.

160 attendees to the MyOcean Closure-MyOcean2 Kick-off Event

The MyOcean operation, which was undertaken in 2009, came to an end on 31 March 2012 but without any break in service, as continuity will be ensured by the MyOcean2 project with a 2-year mandate from the European Commission. MyOcean2 will be offering a more comprehensive and responsive service to more users (for Maritime Safety, Marine Resources, Coastal and Marine Environment, Weather, Climate and Seasonal Forecasting) in preparation for the future European GMES ocean monitoring service to be commissioned by the end of 2014. This service will be provided by ECOMF (the European Centre for Ocean Monitoring and Forecasting).

Over the last 3 years, MyOcean has successfully demonstrated this unique European capability by integrating 46 separate systems in a single one with common standards and by offering a free service to more than 1000 users (European and national agencies, operational centres, institutes, laboratories and private companies). For instance, EMSA (the European Maritime Safety Agency) and EEA (the European Environment Agency) are able to rely each day on the consortium’s products. Users enjoy free access through a single web portal to a catalogue which already lists more than 250 regularly-updated oceanography products. These can be downloaded at any time and cover 7 regions of the planet (the Arctic, Baltic, Mediterranean, Black Sea, North Atlantic, South Atlantic and the global ocean).

MyOcean has been officially closed and MyOcean2 officially launched through several events between March 27th and 29th, located in the Académie Royale des Sciences and then at the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, involving more than 160 people and 25 countries of the consortium as well as executives of the European Commission.

Dr Reinhard Schulte-Braucks (European Commission – DG Enterprise and Industry, Head of Space Research and Development) participated to the Event and presented the “future of Space under Horizon 2020 “. “Space is no longer an exotic field dedicated to science, but is rapidly becoming central to our economy and society. Space is one of the fastest growing economic sectors.” Dr Schulte-Braucks said. “This is in no small part thanks to the developments in the FP7 GMES services projects, such as MyOcean” he added.

Birgit Blasch (European Commission – Research Executive Agency, Deputy Head of Unit and MyOcean project Officer for almost 2 years) introduced REA activities during the very first Event’s day, on behalf of Christine Bernot , REA Head of Unit.

Day2 and Day 3 were then the moment to take stock of actions during the last MyOcean contract period ( Avril 2011/March2012): Each of the 18 MyOcean Work-packages has presented both achievements and lessons learned. Having carefully listened, EC’s reviewers were able to provide the assembly with a preliminary and short feedback before the submission of the MyOcean Final report. “No doubt that you have succeeded” they said while renewing their confidence in MyOcean2 engagements for the next 30month to come.

A poster session took place during the event gathering more than 20 topics (such as :” Implementation and Verification of NEMO for the Black Sea Monitoring and Forecasting Centre” ,”Sensitivity of a North-East Atlantic ocean model to the wave-induced momentum fluxes”,”Exploring the potential for probabilistic forecasting in MyOcean”…). Posters will be shortly posted on MyOcean website ( Scientific publications).

Frédéric Adragna, MyOcean project Manager (appointed by the French Space Agency to a mission in Kourou, French Guyana) is replaced by Joël DORANDEU who becomes MyOcean2 project Manager. Joël was in charge of all Central Engineering activities in MyOcean (MyOCean Information System and Webportal).

MyOcean2 counts 59 partners out of 28 countries. This represents a pool of more than 350 experts and scientists from the Marine domain actively working for a collaborative objective and a unique marine service ever.

As stated by Birgit Blasch, ” MyOcean did a lot and still MyOcean2 has a lot to achieve”. From Day one, the MyOcean2 team is built , the MyOcean spirit is preserved, MyOcean users are delivered and the new Roadmap ready !

]]>http://marine.copernicus.eu/myocean2-got-off-to-a-good-start/feed/0EuroGOOS Regional Operational Oceanographic Systems and In-Situ Observationshttp://marine.copernicus.eu/eurogoos-regional-operational-oceanographic-systems-and-in-situ-observations/
http://marine.copernicus.eu/eurogoos-regional-operational-oceanographic-systems-and-in-situ-observations/#respondTue, 10 Jan 2012 23:00:00 +0000http://marine.copernicus.eu/eurogoos-regional-operational-oceanographic-systems-and-in-situ-observations/EuroGOOS is an association of national governmental agencies and research organizations, founded in 1994, committed to European-scale...

]]>EuroGOOS is an association of national governmental agencies and research organizations, founded in 1994, committed to European-scale operational oceanography within the context of the intergovernmental Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS).

The overall objective of EuroGOOS is to identify, promote, foster, plan and implement cost-efficient operational oceanographic services in Europe and its regions for the benefit of its members in their national and international roles.

EuroGOOS has 34 members, providing operational oceanographic services and carrying out marine research, from 16 European countries. EuroGOOS has developed a European regional structure for the integrated production of observations and services, so called ” Regional Operational Oceanographic Systems” (ROOSes).Six regional sea areas have been defined, all closely linked and essential for MyOcean :

– Arctic ROOS :The Arctic Regional Ocean Observing System has been established by a group of 14 member institutions from 9 European countries working actively with ocean observation and modeling systems for the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas. Arctic ROOS promotes, develops and maintains operational monitoring and forecasting of ocean circulation, water masses, ocean surface conditions, and sea ice and biological/chemical constituents. One of the goals of Arctic ROOS is to contribute to the legacy of IPY, maintaining cost-effective and useful observing systems after the end of IPY. Arctic ROOS members

– BOOS : The Baltic Operational Oceanographic System ‘s vision is to improve the safety and efficiency of maritime transport and marine operations, to enable the sustainable exploitation and management of Baltic Sea resources (fisheries), to support safe and efficient offshore energy activities, to mitigate the effects of environmental hazards and pollution crisis, to contribute to ocean climate variability studies and seasonal climate prediction and to federate the resources and expertise of diverse institutes, agencies, and companies in the public and private sector. BOOS members

– NOOS : The North West European Shelves Operational Oceanographic System is an operational oceanography organization. NOOS is operated by partners from the 9 countries bordering the extended North Sea and European North West Shelf: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK. The partners collaborate to develop and implement ocean observing and prediction systems for the NWS area, with delivery of real time operational data products and services. NOOS members

– IBI-ROOS: The goal of Ireland-Biscay-Iberia Regional Operational Oceanographic System is to set up an operational oceanography organization operated by participating partners from the 5 countries bordering the Iberian-Biscay-Irish maritime area ( France, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and UK), collaborating to develop and implement ocean observing systems for the IBI-ROOS area, with delivery of real time operational data products and services. IBI-ROOS members

– MOON : The Mediterranean Operational Oceanography Network works to consolidate the operational observational/modeling system in the Mediterranean and to demonstrate the usage of the marine environmental prediction system for integrated management of Open Ocean and coastal marine areas. MOON and MedGOOS have recently joined forces and signed a MoA.The new entity is called “MONGOOS” (Mediterranean Operational Network for the Global Ocean System). The following members list will be therefore shortly updated. MOON members

– BLACK SEA GOOS : the Black Sea Global Ocean Observing System contributes to international planning and implementation of the GOOS and promotes it at national, regional and global level. Black Sea GOOS identifies regional priorities for operational oceanography and develops capacity of the regional countries for a better understanding of the Black Sea ecosystem and assesses the economic and social benefits achieved by operational oceanography. BLACK SEA GOOS members

EuroGOOS members and partners have played and still play an important role in projects developing and demonstrating the GMES Marine services component. MyOcean is very much dependent on the availability of global and regional in-situ observations. It is therefore important that these systems are sustained in the future to guarantee the quality and coverage of the products delivered by MyOcean.

Through the MyOcean in-situ TAC (there are 5 Thematic Assembly Center in MyOcean, all dealing with a specific set of observation data) , a major effort has been made to collect and process a large number of in-situ observations available at national, European (EuroGOOS and ROOSs) and international levels.

Only the EuroGOOS association of marine operational and research agencies represents the whole range of operational oceanography in Europe.

Recognised as an IOC Regional Alliance ( Intergovermental Oceanographic Commission), EuroGOOS has set up a community of operational oceanography agencies in the different European marine regions and as such is also a Key-partner for MyOcean and soon for MyOcean2 ( April 2012 – September 2014).

]]>http://marine.copernicus.eu/eurogoos-regional-operational-oceanographic-systems-and-in-situ-observations/feed/0Leafing through the MyOcean Success Bookhttp://marine.copernicus.eu/leafing-through-the-myocean-success-book/
http://marine.copernicus.eu/leafing-through-the-myocean-success-book/#respondSun, 23 Oct 2011 22:00:00 +0000http://marine.copernicus.eu/leafing-through-the-myocean-success-book/MyOcean, the main European project dedicated to the implementation of the GMES Marine Service for Ocean Monitoring...

]]>MyOcean, the main European project dedicated to the implementation of the GMES Marine Service for Ocean Monitoring & Forecasting started in April 2009 and will end in March 2012 when an operational prototype is planned to take over.

Since December 2010 yet, MyOcean has been operating a full service range based on a regularly updated catalogue of products.

The MyOcean Success book has been created to record memorable MyOcean pages in terms of Users’ feedback or Use cases.

It provides to any visitor, keen to know more about MyOcean’s benefits, with some valuable examples, easy to understand.

The MyOcean Success book will be regularly enriched and posted in the PRESSS/EDITION CORNER even after March 2012.

“MyOcean has raised our awareness of the usefulness of operational data in other words having a fast turnover of data to better assess and predict the status and variability of the marine ecosystems… The worldwide information that MyOcean offers is also important to us because we provide development aid in areas for which we have not much information of our own about the marine environment, for instance in Africa…“

“…MyOcean contributes to our activities by providing data and models. The ocean is still under-sampled and no one nation is capable of dealing single-handedly with the big issues we are facing …MyOcean provides datasets from a single centralised Data Centre. It is important for the Climate Community. I used to download data from many different sources and institutions…and it is much easier to have one centralised Data portal that I can access…”

“…Physics of the Oceans has to do with Temperature ….so either modelled or in-situ based Sea Surface Temperature is a key-parameter for the whole community. Previously we used a lot of data from different providers…Now we have one site, one way of entry, data delivered in a common format. That’s quite powerful…”

MARITIME SAFETY

Ari SEINA, Finnish Meteorological Institute, FMI Finland,

“…Sea Ice is a very important factor for ships in the Baltic Sea. We have there a heavy maritime transportation and for half of the year the ocean is half covered so we have to make things better. Previously for instance we used about 200/250 SAR images (Synthetic Aperture Radar). Nowadays (with MyOcean), we use 700 to 800 images, which means better navigation and fewer hazards.…”

]]>Understanding the ocean to better protect the Earth is one of the key objectives of operational oceanography. Ocean forecasts, nowcasts and hindcasts are provided on a regular basis through 3D models by an increasing number of operational oceanography centres in the world, contributing to a large range of applications including marine resource management, maritime safety, climate research and marine environment studies. These applications use data collected by Earth observation satellites and by volunteer ships as well as automatic sensors (in-situ, especially for subsurface measurements) that transmit data in real- time via satellites. Monitoring and forecasting the physical state of the oceans (such as temperature, salinity, ice coverage, sea level and currents in particular) are now services for many marine purposes, notably in the event of the maritime pollution.

One such example was the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska. At that time, operational oceanography was at an embryonic stage. More than 20 years later, monitoring and forecasting the oceans have become a reality. The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig off the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 and the oil spill that resulted may illustrate the benefits of operational oceanography. As hundreds of thousands of litres of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico daily, operational oceanography models were able to forecast currents (intensity and direction), making it possible to anticipate oil spill drifts and adapt emergency actions accordingly.

The ultimate impact of the rig blowout will depend on many variables, one of which is ocean currents. Current forecasts are therefore vital to protect citizens, wildlife and ecosystems. The illustration below shows the close link between ocean currents and oil spill evolution off the Gulf of Mexico from April 27th to May 1st, 2010 (with the courtesy of Meteo France):

.

It is important to have a reference description such as long time-series of ocean data to forecast upper ocean currents and dynamics. This reference is also useful for back-tracking models (hindcasts) to locate the origin of an oil spill in the ocean: ships or oil tankers sometimes illegally empty their fuel tanks out at sea. In that case, ocean currents are numerically operated in complex models and studied on a retrospective basis, making it possible to track where the oil spill originated and therefore aid in identifying the responsible tanker.

For many years, developing a real ocean monitoring and forecasting system capable of meeting user demands has been a challenge in oceanography. After years of coordinated international endeavours benefiting from state-of-the-art expertise in space technology, oceanography and meteorology, operational oceanography is now a reality. In Europe, this is reflected by MyOcean, a concerted and integrated service delivery capacity implemented within the framework of GMES Marine Service.